Sticky Bum Advice needed

I have read up on previous threads for sticky bottom but I suppose each one is a bit different I would be grateful of any advice. Emily has always been relatively clean down there but always noticeably passed lots of soft poo night and day whilst she is sleeping. She often gets it on her dewlap as she tends to sleep heavily these days and roles in it but she always cleans her self up. I have to wash her rugs every week as the evidence is there. I give her a trim and clean her vent once a month. But lately she’s had a messy bum. It’s difficult to know what I am doing wrong as when Bobby was alive they both ate the same, in fact Bobby ate lots of ready grass & there was no evidence he had the same problem. In fact I never saw him pass any soft poo but he could have been discreet and eaten is straight from his anus. Emily has a decent sized dewlap but the vet said she was not really overweight but I can see she may have difficulty reaching her bum. I have noticed she turns around and eats the poo once it’s dropped out but Just lately it’s not dropped and got stuck to her bum and dried so I’ve had to wash her which I do not want to have to do all the time. Emily has a small egg cup of dried food and I’m trying to reduce that so she has a sprinkle of excel pellets (mixed excel light & ginseng for older rabbits) morning and some fresh greens such as spring cabbage, broccoli/stems, kale, wild lambs lettuce or milk thistle type greens. She has Ready Grass in her box as and when she wants as she will not eat hay and she can go outside and eat grass. Emily has some more greens when I get home at 5pm & her remaining pellets when she goes to bed at 10pm. I’ve been giving her apple stick as she really loves those and now she does not have Bobby it’s keeps her occupied. The vet said it’s not the greens as rabbits should have lots of greens. I’m going away for 2 days next week with work and I would hate for her to be all sticky. It’s also a worry in the summer although I used Johnsons fly strike spray this summer. I have half the bottle left but it’s expired. Any tips would be good thanks. Sorry I don’t add myself to many threads as I feel I have much to learn myself & terrible getting my point accross

I have this trouble with one of my bunnies. It cannot be diet as three other of my rabbits are all perfectly clean.

Just Twinkle that has constant runny special poops... I cant stop her doing them!!! Just cleaned out the playhouse and have had to scrape up loads of special runny poops from all over the place :roll:

I know what you mean. I've just washed all Emily's rugs and two mins later she has made a smudgy patch already but so far her bum is ok. Yesterday I could see her turning round and wondering were the poo had gone and I used some tissue to remove it as it was still stuck to her bum and she said thanks and ate it. It's more of a soft clump than runny.

I have just been given this advice on my thread in Health section from Prettylupin...

http://www.veterinarypartner.com/Content.plx?P=A&A=3012&S=1&SourceID=43

Have a look.

My thread: http://forums.rabbitrehome.org.uk/showthread.php?t=255659

fluffiebunnie said:

I have this trouble with one of my bunnies. It cannot be diet as three other of my rabbits are all perfectly clean.

Click to expand...

I only have it with one of my bunnies but it's still diet related, it's just that she can't tolerate anything but the tiniest amount of sugar in her food whereas the others can.

With her I have to make sure she only has one treat a day or every other day and very very rarely does she ever get any sugary food (fruit, carrot, baby corn, mangetout or peadpods). If it was me Suzy B I would take out the apple stick and see if that helps.

I will remove the apple sticks and see how she goes thanks. I often give a small amount of fresh pinapple or slice of apple so I will hold back on that too. I bought Emily some hay cakes yesterday.

I have read the link on soft cecotropes that fluffiebunnie sent and its very informative. I also ready about Gastrointestinal Tract Function Which Bobby had but he was on a good diet with no stress but did not make it. I have a week before I go away so I hope Emily's tum settles down.

Suzy B said:

I have read up on previous threads for sticky bottom but I suppose each one is a bit different I would be grateful of any advice. Emily has always been relatively clean down there but always noticeably passed lots of soft poo night and day whilst she is sleeping. She often gets it on her dewlap as she tends to sleep heavily these days and roles in it but she always cleans her self up. I have to wash her rugs every week as the evidence is there. I give her a trim and clean her vent once a month. But lately she’s had a messy bum. It’s difficult to know what I am doing wrong as when Bobby was alive they both ate the same, in fact Bobby ate lots of ready grass & there was no evidence he had the same problem. In fact I never saw him pass any soft poo but he could have been discreet and eaten is straight from his anus. Emily has a decent sized dewlap but the vet said she was not really overweight but I can see she may have difficulty reaching her bum. I have noticed she turns around and eats the poo once it’s dropped out but Just lately it’s not dropped and got stuck to her bum and dried so I’ve had to wash her which I do not want to have to do all the time. Emily has a small egg cup of dried food and I’m trying to reduce that so she has a sprinkle of excel pellets (mixed excel light & ginseng for older rabbits) morning and some fresh greens such as spring cabbage, broccoli/stems, kale, wild lambs lettuce or milk thistle type greens. She has Ready Grass in her box as and when she wants as she will not eat hay and she can go outside and eat grass. Emily has some more greens when I get home at 5pm & her remaining pellets when she goes to bed at 10pm. I’ve been giving her apple stick as she really loves those and now she does not have Bobby it’s keeps her occupied. The vet said it’s not the greens as rabbits should have lots of greens. I’m going away for 2 days next week with work and I would hate for her to be all sticky. It’s also a worry in the summer although I used Johnsons fly strike spray this summer. I have half the bottle left but it’s expired. Any tips would be good thanks. Sorry I don’t add myself to many threads as I feel I have much to learn myself & terrible getting my point accross

Click to expand...

She may not be able to reach her bottom properly with a large dewlap. How are her teeth? Dental and spinal issues are also an underlying cause for sticky bottoms and her reluctance to eat hay may be dental related, or it may be that she is just used to getting a fair proportion of pellets and has not learnt to eat sufficient quantities of hay. How many pellets do you feed?

I would personally consider cutting down her pellets and changing them to a different brand from Excel (renound for causing caecal upset). I would also cut out the greens, cabbage and brocoli - all memebers of the brassica family which many buns with sticky bottom can not tolerate. There are other greens you could slowly introduce as an alternative but I would firstly just cut out all veg for a few days and significantly reduce her pellet portion and feed lots of hay/readi grass or alternative fibrous plant matter such as grass, dandelions, plantain, tree leaves etc to see if this improves things. A vet visit to rule out dental issues would also be helpful.

http://www.veterinarypartner.com/Content.plx?P=A&A=3012&S=1&SourceID=43

My Inca had bouts of runny poo a few months ago.

I got some Protexin pro-fibre pellets and feed a few of them daily and she has not had any runny poo since.

I know that they are not fixing any underlying problem, but they did clear up the runny poo.